Broken Lamp
by Sull89
Summary: One shot. The one piece of news that really did shake the Rockbell home leaves Winry wishing the future had never come and that the past had remained the present.


"What do you mean…?" Winry grasped the phone to her ear, holding on to it like there was no tomorrow, "No, that can't be right." Pleading with the person across the line, she did everything she could to ignore what they were saying, "You've made a mistake; you must have!"

As the call went on Winry got even more anxious. Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them spill over, "You're wrong." Whipping around, she slammed the phone back onto its cradle and then screamed at the inanimate object for all she was worth, "You're wrong, damn it!"

"Winry, such behavior is unseemly." Startled, the girl turned to see her grandmother leaning against the doorframe, "Especially when a customer just walked in." Huffing, the old woman pointed at Winry with a stern finger, "I don't know what is wrong with you, but you had better compose yourself this instant."

"Compose myself…?" Winry laughed, but it wasn't an amused sound, "Yeah, right, Grandma. Do you know who that was on the phone?" As Pinako shook her head, very confused at the way Winry was acting, she never expected the next words that flowed from the girl's lips, "It was Colonel Mustang; he called to tell us that Ed…" Winry choked back a sob, "To tell us that Edward died last night!"

Pinako started, her eyes wide getting wide as saucers. She stared at her granddaughter for a moment before speaking, and when she finally did her voice was almost too quiet to be heard, "Winry…" Turning away, she headed through the door she had been resting against, and Winry heard her asking their customer to come back later.

The old lady reentered the room slowly. Without a word she sat down on the couch and then sighed and rested her forehead in one palm. Winry, concerned even more now over her grandmother's unusual actions, sat down beside Pinako, the tears streaming down her face, "Grandma, I'm sorry I yelled."

Pinako shook her head, "Don't be sorry, my girl." Straightening her shoulders, she gazed out the window opposite them, "It just surprised me; that's all." Pinako turned and gently wiped her thumb along the bottom of Winry's eye, brushing away the tears, "Tell me; what did the Colonel say?"

Winry bit her lip, "Mustang, well, he…" Pressing her fingers against her temples, the younger female tried to get her mouth to fully form the proper words, "I guess… Edward and Alphonse were searching for that Ishbalan serial killer, Scar. They tailed him through the desert, but then…"

Her voice drifted off as she bowed her head and Pinako could hear the tears fall even as Winry tired to hold them back, "Something happen and Ed… It, it killed him." Almost suffocating on the small amount of air she was drawing into her body, the automail engineer clenched her fist in the fabric of her pants, "Mustang wouldn't tell me what went wrong though."

"Grandma," Winry looked up, not caring that it was obvious she felt like dying herself, "Ed's been through so much…" An angry glint formed in Winry's eyes suddenly, "All of this is the State's fault! The Military is the reason all this happened, that's why Ed's gone!" Screaming, she bashed her fist of the back of the couch, "First Mustang murdered my mom and dad when they were only trying to help people and now he's sent Edward out on some fool mission and killed him too!"

Covering her eyes with both hands and pressing down to try and stop herself from shaking, Winry continued to rant, "I never even got to tell him goodbye!" As she collapsed against the furniture, Winry Rockbell just kept pouring out all her thoughts and emotions, "Why did Ed even become a Military Dog in the first place? He knew it was dangerous!"

"There were so many things that I wanted to tell him!" Still angry, Winry lashed out and knocked a lamp from the side table, ignoring the fact that it shattered against the floor, "Things that I'll never get to now!" Sagging down as though her muscles just gave out on her, Winry rested her hands in her lap, "Why didn't I tell him?"

Pinako let her grandchild scream and cry until Winry was drained of most of her energy. Reaching out, she laid a bony hand on the girl's knee, "Winry, you can't focus on the things that have been done and can't be changed." Brushing the moisture from her own eyes, Pinako tried to get Winry to understand, "If you hold a grudge against the Colonel for his past actions, it would be the same as doing that to Edward."

Winry turned away, not agreeing with Pinako at all, "That's not true. Ed didn't have to die; he wouldn't have if the almighty Flame Alchemist hadn't sent him out to chase death." Before Pinako could say anything else, Winry spoke again, "Grandma, please… Don't. Not right now."

Pinako conceded and rose from the couch, "Alright Winry. I'll be in the kitchen if you want me." Walking away, Pinako went through the connecting door without a word to the other person, although she couldn't help but think, 'That boy was Winry's whole life, even if she didn't know it…'

Flopping over to rest limp against the couch, Winry sighed and stared at the lamp she had broken. She was dry of tears now, but still felt like drowning. Running her hand against the floor, the girl grabbed a small piece of the shattered glass and let it rest in her palm as her mind rolled through the memories.

Thinking about her past, all the wonderful times she had spent with the older Elric brother and everything they had done, Winry couldn't help but wish that things were as simple as childhood had been. Shaking her head, she dropped the piece of glass, "Normally I'd put all these pieces in a box and save them for Ed. He would have transmuted them back into a lamp..."

"He would have made things whole again…" Rising, Winry made her way around the glass and started to head for the backyard, "Like they were when he was alive." Pausing to rest against the wall, she said one more thing, "Why couldn't time have frozen when that lamp was still undamaged?"

"Things would have been fine then…"

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Read and review please.  
-Sull 


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